<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>ldb</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR="#ffffff" TEXT="#000000" VLINK="#292555" LINK="#292555" ALINK="#cc0033">

<h1>ldb</h1>

ldb is a LDAP-like embedded database. It is not at all
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol">LDAP</a> 
standards compliant, so if you want a standards compliant database then please
see the excellent <a href="http://www.openldap.org/">OpenLDAP</a>
project.<p>

What ldb does is provide a fast database with an LDAP-like API
designed to be used within an application. In some ways it can be seen
as a intermediate solution between key-value pair databases and a real
LDAP database.<p>

ldb is the database engine used in Samba4.

<h2>Features</h2>

The main features that separate ldb from other solutions are:

<ul>
<li>Safe multi-reader, multi-writer, using byte range locking
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LDAP_Application_Program_Interface">LDAP-like API</a>
<li>fast operation
<li>choice of local tdb or remote LDAP backends
<li>integration with <a href="http://talloc.samba.org">talloc</a>
<li>schema-less operation, for trivial setup
<li>modules for extensions (such as schema support)
<li>easy setup of indexes and attribute properties
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LDAP_Data_Interchange_Format">LDIF</a> for import/export
<li>ldbedit tool for database (via LDIF) editing (reminiscent of 'vipw')
</ul>

<h2>Documentation</h2>

Currently ldb is completely lacking in programmer or user
documentation. This is your opportunity to make a contribution! Start
with the public functions declared in <a
href="http://samba.org/ftp/unpacked/ldb/include/ldb.h">ldb.h</a>
and the example code in the <a
href="http://samba.org/ftp/unpacked/ldb/tools/">tools
directory</a>. Documentation in the same docbook format used by Samba
would be preferred.

<h2>Discussion and bug reports</h2>

ldb does not have its own mailing list or bug tracking system. Please
use
the <a href="https://lists.samba.org/mailman/listinfo/samba-technical">samba-technical</a>
mailing list, and the <a href="http://bugzilla.samba.org/">Samba
bugzilla</a> bug tracking system.

<h2>Download</h2>

You can download the latest release here:<br>
 <a href="http://samba.org/ftp/pub/ldb">http://samba.org/ftp/pub/ldb</a>

Alternatively, you can fetch via git. See the following guide:<br>
<a href="http://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Using_Git_for_Samba_Development">Using Git for Samba Development</a><br>

<hr>
<tiny>
<a href="http://samba.org/~tridge/">Andrew Tridgell</a><br>
ldb AT tridgell.net
</tiny>

</BODY>
</HTML>
